Cheshire Academies Trust

Newsletter 3
Spring Term 2015

Good Things Grow Here

Year 5 Writing Competition An update!

Year 5 have finally submitted their entry for this year's World Book Day
competition entitled 'Why I Can't Live Without Books'. Miss Cottrell
unveiled the spectacular book made by the Year 5 children in a whole school
assembly and talked us through the project. The large handmade book is
now in London being judged by a panel of judges including James Patterson
(author) and Helen Skelton (BBC Presenter and author). Fingers crossed for
the prize - 10,000 worth of books! The whole teaching staff were amazed
by the quality and presentation of the Year 5 entry. Well done everyone!

Marcos entry

Year 2 Young Writers Competition

Year 2 have not taken up the challenge of entering competitions!
Each pupil has written their own acrostic poem about a subject
of their choice in the hope of winning 500 for Mill View!
Good luck Year 2!
Some of our exciting Context for Learning Work so far
this half term
Year 2 pupils have been super busy (and noisy!) exploring their
Context for Learning How would life be different if I lived
in an African country?
Here they are in the school hall enjoying creating their own
African inspired music using percussion instruments. Have a look
at the videos on the Year 2 blog.

Have you read the flier and blog posts about The Way
Word Festival?
Mrs Gibbons and Mrs McCrimmon shared information about this
exciting festival in a whole school assembly last week. This
years festival features famous stargazers, funny
mathematicians, best-selling authors, amazing illustrators, hit
CBBC writers, super-duper computer builders, and lots more. To
find out more, click onto the website www.wayword.co.uk. It
looks a super event for children of all ages.

Cheshire Academies Trust Limited trading as Mill View Primary School. Registered in England and Wales 08108086. Registered office Kelsall Primary School, Flat Lane, Kelsall, Cheshire CW6 0PU.

Year 1 Trip to Chester Zoo

On Tuesday 3rd of February Year One went to Chester Zoo. Their current CFL is Where do the wheels on the
bus go? So an important part of the visit was using the school minibus to get there. The children had planned
what animals they wanted to learn more about and this included finding out about snakes and other reptiles. We
organised a workshop with a zoo ranger in the Tropical Realm to answer some of our questions. We had a
special welcome from another zoo ranger who had a surprise for us that had been organised by Leos Dad, Dr
Gerardo Garcia, Chester Zoo's curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates. He had arranged for us to feed the
giant tortoise and some of the birds within the Tropical Realm. Highlights of our visit were seeing the baby
rhinoceros, the baby giraffe, the jaguars and of course our special surprise.

Have you read the PTAs latest newsletter?

The PTA does a fantastic job raising funds for exciting projects in our school. Please take the time to read their
newsletter. Dont forget the next PTA meeting is Tuesday 3 March at 6pm. All are welcome.
Congratulations to Miss Cottrell who has secured a place on the Leaders of Tomorrow leadership course.
She will attend a series of training days over the next coming months. Well done Miss Cottrell!
A Tale Unfolds
Year 4 and 5 have just embarked upon an exciting 8 week English project called A Tale Unfolds. This project
will result in the children planning, editing and producing short films entitled Cindy Ann and Bones and the
Temple of Boom. We hope the children can share their videos with you very soon
500 Words
Dont forget to enter Chris Evans' short-story writing competition for
children 5-13! All you need to do is enter a short story of less than 500
words. Click onto www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00rfvk1 to find out more
details. Feel free to post your entries on your blogs. We would love to read
them!
RE Resources
Mrs Noble was successful in her bid to secure a grant for RE
Christianity resources from the Jerusalem Trust. As a school we now
have:
Class set of Beginners Bibles for Key Stage 1
Class set of the Graphic Bible for Key Stage 2
A set of Bible character hand puppets
A nativity set for each class
A set of South American crosses
A selection of picture books

Cheshire Academies Trust Limited trading as Mill View Primary School. Registered in England and Wales 08108086. Registered office Kelsall Primary School, Flat Lane, Kelsall, Cheshire CW6 0PU.

Year 5 Trip to World Museum, Liverpool

On Thursday 5 February, the children in Year 5 visited Liverpool World Museum as part of their CfL on Ancient
Egypt. The children had a great day learning all about the lives of the Ancient Egyptians, seeing real Egyptian
mummies and participating in a hands-on session where they got to touch real Egyptian artefacts. The children
were complemented on their excellent behaviour and prior knowledge during the session.

Safer Internet Day 2015 will be celebrated globally on Tuesday 10 February with the
slogan Lets create a better internet together.
Mr Gilbert (Technology Leader) and Mrs White (Learning Mentor) led an assembly about
how to be a good online citizen for the children in Year 2 to Year 6. Mrs White recently
delivered a session to Year 6 about awareness and understanding of age limits and
age restrictions (including age limits on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc). Children will be bringing home a
great magazine called Digital Parenting which is well worth a read and also check out the E-safety page of the
school website for lots of useful links to games, videos and activities to start the conversation at home.
Staffing Update
Thank you to
Mrs Hall who has been our school cleaner for 18 months and has decided to concentrate on her catering
career in the Windmill Caf. We would like to thank Mrs Hall for her commitment in ensuring that our
school building was always clean and tidy for our children and staff every day
Congratulations to
Mr Parker has been appointed as Deputy Supervisor in Miller Club
Miss Carter has been appointed as the school cleaner. She will also continue working in the Windmill Caf
Mrs Borman has been appointed as Play Worker in Miller Club. She will also continue working in the
Windmill Caf

Mr Parker

Miss Carter

Mrs Borman

Cheshire Academies Trust Limited trading as Mill View Primary School. Registered in England and Wales 08108086. Registered office Kelsall Primary School, Flat Lane, Kelsall, Cheshire CW6 0PU.

Chester Cathedral Celebration

Children from Reception, Year 2 and Year 4 recently submitted work
for the Canon Chancellors award, a competition run by Chester
Cathedral. This involved showing how drama, art and music are used
in the teaching of RE in our school. Reception children used puppets
to explore the concept of family and belonging; year 2 explored the
story of Zacchaeus through music, and Year 4 used the Creation
window at the cathedral as inspiration for a batik wall hanging.
Mill View was selected as a Highly Commended entry, and will receive
a presentation plaque and certificate. In addition, three children who have shown an
aptitude for RE will visit the Cathedral to receive the award and take a short trip up
the Cathedral tower. Well done to the children who worked so hard to achieve this.
Batik Wall Hanging
Key Stage 2 Corridor

Academy Update
I wanted also to give you an update as we have now been an academy for nearly a whole month. In our 2015
school development plan, one section is entirely devoted to matters related to setting up our multi academy
trust. This will be available on the school website soon. Headteachers and Principals have been meeting to
arrange staff training and link our schools further. We have been in discussions to implement an 11 by 11 plan
across all 3 schools. I am sure you are thinking, What is 11 by 11? This means across all 3 schools that staff
will be thinking of 11 fundamental primary experiences that we want children across our trust to have before
they are 11 years old and leave for High School. This will be a thread of consistency between trust schools that
link the children and our curriculums together.
Year 6 Parents
Thank you to all the parents who attended the information evening led by Mrs Anderson and Mrs Burt-Williams it
was lovely to see so many parents.

Diary Dates
Monday 09 February Year 5 visit to Upton High School to see Grease the Musical
Tuesday 10 February - Year 6 visit to Upton High School to see Grease the Musical and Safer Internet Day
Wednesday 11 to Thursday 12 February Spring term Parents evening
Friday 13 February School closed for staff training
Monday 23 February School re-opens
Thursday 26 February PTA Film Night (no extracurricular clubs)
Tuesday 03 March PTA meeting at 6pm in school
Thursday 05 March Young Voices concert in Manchester and World Book Day
Monday 30 March to Wednesday 1 April Year 5 Residential to the Conway Centre
Wednesday 11 March Tempest Class Photographs
Monday 30 to Tuesday 31 March Year 2 Residential to Foxhowl, Delamere Forest
Thursday 02 April School closes for Easter holidays

Cheshire Academies Trust Limited trading as Mill View Primary School. Registered in England and Wales 08108086. Registered office Kelsall Primary School, Flat Lane, Kelsall, Cheshire CW6 0PU.